Blair should have known better. A lot better. She should have known that secrets never stayed secret for long, especially when Serena was the one keeping them "safe." She should've known that in the Upper East Side, there were no secrets. Everyone knew everything yet they still kept up the false pretences because it's what makes the Upper East Side the Upper East Side. For what seemed the longest time, she let herself believe that her and Nate were going somewhere. And not just anywhere, oh no, big things. Like going to Yale together. Like getting married. Like buying a house and getting their cats and dogs (they wouldn't have children for a while because Blair would focus on her career) and just being their fabulous selves.
But she was young. She was a fool. She was blinded by his gleaming blond hair and emerald eyes. He was high and she was intoxicated. The worst part of it all was, trying to repeat it again with Chuck. Trying to picture those two going to Yale and buying a house just didn't work. And if it did, well then it was certainly not going to be smooth. Moving on from Nate? Not easy. Especially when he sauntered up to her on this particular Friday morning, being the golden boy she knew so well. Nothing ever just stayed in the past in the Upper East Side.
Blair was sipping her coffee from some random coffee cart and a frown was plastered across her face. She was tired; actually, dead on her feet was what she was. Between homework, Nate and Chuck she just surprised herself by walking this morning.
On that note, her two favourite guys were approaching her right now. Nate was scanning a sheet attentively whist Chuck was beaming happily at Blair. Blair forced a weak smile as Chuck kissed her roughly as a greeting.
"You won't believe the week I've been having," Chuck began exasperated, "Parents, biological and blond women who have just married my father won't get off my case about College." Blair couldn't help but roll her eyes. Chuck had been working hard at school for the past week; Blair had been doing it for most of her life.
She glanced at Nate and he took no notice. Actually, that was wrong. Nate always looked like he didn't notice. He knew that girls just looked at him and he knew he was hot; it was kind of hard not too. He just didn't act cocky about it. She could not believe he rejected her. It made no sense whatsoever. He turns up at her house, declaring his undying love. Then she finally makes a move and he rejects her. It's typical of him, really.
The threesome remained silent until they reached the courtyard and Serena tugged on Dan's hand as she approached her friends. She took Blair away from the boys and left Dan with Vanessa.
"Is this an official feud now?" She sighed. She had an endearing smile on her face and Blair just felt like forgiving her. It was Serena, for Gods sake. It was December, too. The silence had been lasting quite a while now and we all know there's nothing to keep you warm more than getting back your best friend.
"I'm officially tired and too lazy to call you." Blair replied sincerely. "And besides you probably spent most of your days at Dans." She added knowingly.
"Yeah and two guesses as to who else has." Serena responded loathly. It was stalker film girl, no doubt. Also known as Vanessa Abrams.
"Well I mean, Humphrey and her are Bffs right? It's to be expected, S." Blair commented. To tell the truth, she'd kind of been secretly supporting the idea of Dan and Vanessa as a couple. That way S would be back to the old S Blair knew and loved and Humphrey would be out of their lives once and for all. Blair was actually smiling on the inside. In a way, it was payback for Serena intruding on her and Nate over the years. But of course, she wasn't going to say that.
"Blair, seriously. She's been intruding. She walked in on Dan and I when-
"Shut up, S. You know I'm fragile in the mornings." Blair snapped back.
"Fine. How did your little visit to Nate go?" Serena shifted the topic. Blair wasn't going to help her with her Dan drama. She still had plenty of her own to contend with.
"I said some things. He said some things. Then I left." Blair stated blankly. She skipped the part where she tried to kiss him and he humiliated her yet again by saying no. Who did Nate think he was, anyway? He needs me. Blair thought bitterly.
"That's all?" The blond girl asked suspiciously. Of course, that wasn't all but Serena didn't have to know.
"Yeah, that's all." Blair replied hastily as she stomped into school on that blustery Friday morning.
--
Vanessa was in the Humphrey's apartment with Dan. They were in the kitchen and just goofing around like they usually did. She wasn't filming; she hadn't been doing a lot of it recently. She had other things on her mind. Other things like Dan.
"How are you and Serena doing?" She asked innocently, in her best I'm-your-best-friend-just-taking-an-interest tone.
"We're okay, I guess." He began. "We don't have all that stupid drama going on anymore. Like we can just be with each other this time." He said thoughtfully. Vanessa's heart sank. It just wasn't going to happen, was it? He was completely besotted with Serena.
"Its just I'm kinda thinking…I mean did you two ever talk about all the reasons you broke up?" She inquired. Dan looked at her sharply. Partly because Vanessa had been scrutinizing his relationship very closely recently and partly because he knew she was right. He and Serena didn't talk. They had sex. They made out and they occasionally held hands once in a while. He did love her but it felt strange. Less like a couple, more like friends with benefits. And when they finished having sex, when the make out sessions were over and they let each others hand go when they left for home or school that was it.
Dan considered rebuking Vanessa but where would it get him? She was right, after all.
"No. No not really." He admitted, looking down at his grey converse. "It's just…if we bring it up again then it'll all be ruined and I don't want it to be ruined." He added solemnly.
Of course. He didn't want the fairytale romance to go away. In his mind, he and Serena were two star crossed lovers, constantly being torn apart by the evils of the Upper East Side. But they struggled through it, together.
"Can you help a guy out? You know everything." Dan smiled at Vanessa. She knew him so well, how could she not tell him the answers?
"Ask her to the winter formal thing." Vanessa blurted out. Why did he make a big deal of everything? Serena was his (kind of) girlfriend and that's what they do, right? "Come on, Humphrey you're losing your game here." She added jokingly.
"I never had any 'game.'" He replied with a smirk. He was right. Despite the summer girls who found his self righteous ass quite adorable, he was hopeless. Humphrey had as much game as your grandma. Especially considering the beautiful girl who practically lived in his apartment was throwing herself at him at every available opportunity and he still seemed intent on letting her slip away.
"I'm going to call Nate." Vanessa informed Dan, as if he actually cared. She wasn't going to wait forever. She was going to stop being a fool. From now on, she was nobodies fool.
"I'm going to call Serena." He responded.
"Good." Vanessa replied coolly.
"Um, good." Dan was clearly freaked out.
--
"I haven't talk to Blair in months," Nate repeated to Vanessa as they walked their way to the restaurant where they were going to have a "date." From the outside, Nate and Vanessa were dating. They just didn't kiss or have sex. Nate kissed her once on Halloween when he was drunk off his blond ass, but Vanessa responded with a giggle. And it wasn't the 'oh-you're-so-hot-I-can't-believe-you're-actually-kissing-me' giggle, it was more like the 'really-what-the-hell-are-you-doing-drunk-boy?' giggle. When they reached their destination, Nate held the door open for Vanessa when they got their table; he pulled her chair out for her to sit down. He was an exceptional gentleman, and Vanessa was really beginning to think she should have kissed him back on Halloween.
"Well, I have a shocker, Dan and Serena still very much in love." She deadpanned.
"Dan isn't worth it." Nate smiled. "If he can't even see what's right in front of him, just let him go on with Serena. Who cares?"
Vanessa cared, very much. Maybe it was time she stopped, though.
"Do you remember Halloween?" She asked with a chuckle?
Nate couldn't answer, because a hand had been placed on his shoulder.
"Nathaniel." Chuck greeted him smoothly. Blair stood behind Chuck and Nate and death stared Vanessa. "You and Vanessa want to join Blair and me?" He asked.
Chuck was never that guy. You know the guy who actually enjoys spending time with his girlfriend? His policy was to get them into bed and get them out again. But now Blair has inspired to him to enjoy the world do f dating. And apparently double dating was something he wanted to sample. Like now.
Blair knew, whatever this mess was, it was going to end badly. Either with her storming away from them with no apparent reason or her trying to kiss Nate again. It was all going to go up in flames like a gallon of alcohol poured on top of a fireplace with newspapers scattered all around it.
Nate remained silent. Something told him that this was going to end badly.
But he and Vanessa agreed anyway, because who were they to oppose Chuck Bass?
--
Dan barely had time to register the girl that was kissing him as he opened his apartment door. It could have been freaking Vanessa for all that he knew.
"Ser…" He breathed out as he stepped back. He should've just kissed back, really. Screw Vanessa's advice. Dan and Serena was a couple of action, that's all. All action. So much action, they just didn't have the time for words. Serena stepped up to him again and just started kissing him.
"Bed. Now." She murmured.
Wow, S stands for slow and subtle then.
"We need to talk." Dan sputtered.
"What's there to talk about?" Serena backed away. She didn't want to talk. She didn't get back with Dan to talk. The mischievous smirk on her face reverted to a frown. Talk was cheap. She and Dan were at their most efficient when it came to the stuff that mattered.
"Well we never talked properly since we broke up." Dan told her and Serena felt all their previous struggled be hashed up again as he spoke.
After a silence that felt like it lasted half an hour, Serena sat down on the couch and a smile spread across her face again.
"We could talk in the bedroom." She offered in an attempt to lighten the mood.
Dan sighed and faced her.
"Yeah, we could." And he smiled back.
--
At this stage in the game, Blair felt like stabbing her gorgeous, silver, Christian Laboutin heels into Nate's foot. Then Vanessa's. Then Chuck's for making her spend her Friday here. With them. Even an evening spent with Serena was better than this. Nate and Chuck were talking their usual talk; being best buddies and making Blair feel sick to the pit of her stomach. It wasn't like she could talk to Vanessa. Or maybe she could.
"I'm off to the ladies." She tossed down her napkin and left her steak alone.
"I'll come with you." Vanessa said, gladly making her escape.
Nate was no A-average student but he knew that girls talked about two things when they went to the bathroom. Sex and lipgloss. And he pretty sure the topic what would sprout up in Blair and Vanessa's conversation.
Chuck was smiling to himself and it wasn't his signature, scheming smile. He was actually happy.
"You and Blair are like a power couple." Nate remarked fondly, "You two are going to take over the world or something." Chuck laughed and sipped his scotch. Well, one thing was for sure, Chuck and Blair took over Nate's world.
--
"So you and Nate are together now then." Blair mused as she applied a fresh coat of lipgloss.
"I thought you would have already known, what with Gossip Girl." Vanessa answered, washing her hands.
"I seen a few pictures but you weren't caught kissing so I just assumed that you two were friends." Blair replied, turning around.
"Oh. Well we are. Just friends." Vanessa mumbled. If this had nothing to do with Nate, Blair would have been turning up her nose at Vanessa's quirky bright green boots. But since this had a lot to do with Nate, she was already preoccupied and she knew where Vanessa could stick her boots later.
"Can I ask you something?" Blair began quickly, because it wasn't really a question, it was a demand, "when are you and Humphrey going to crawl back into the hole where you both crawled from? What do they call it, Brooklyn?"
Vanessa rolled her eyes. She knew the insult was coming, but she wasn't going to take heed.
"You are so not over him." She proclaimed, almost smiling in victory. "I mean, I was kind of sitting on the same table as you two. You didn't so much as take your eyes off him." Vanessa placed her hands under the dryer and Blair was left open mouthed for two seconds.
"Oh right. I forgot that you and Humphrey know everything." She scoffed, whirling around to make her way out.
"Are you ever going to tell him?" Vanessa asked hastily before Blair could escape.
"Which one?" Blair asked Vanessa. Her tone was desperate. She just looked at herself in the mirror. She still didn't know what she was doing. She still didn't know what to do, take a risk with Nate and face loosing everyone and have Chuck completely destroy her or stay with Chuck because it was the right, safe thing to do.
"You know, maybe if we'd stuck to our little arrangement back in September, we could be facing a Christmas with the guys we actually do like." Vanessa argued back.
Blair paused, something about the way Vanessa said like.
"Not like docu-girl. I love Nate. Always have, always will. And I'm pretty sure you feel the same about Cabbage patch. I mean really who are we kidding? I can't sleep at night because I like Nate. I can barely sit beside him and Chuck at a table because I like Nate. If I'm going to feel sick every two minutes, it better not be over the fact that I like someone." Blair gabbled. The girls remained silent for a while.
"If we're going to break Dan and Serena up…" Blair muttered, "It's going to take both of us. Me to convince Serena and you to convince Humphrey."
"It's too late for that. He's in love, too." Vanessa whispered as she exited the bathroom.
--
When the ordeal was over, Vanessa called a cab straight home but Nate, Blair and Chuck went out for drinks. Chuck was tipsy, not completely drunk and Nate was smoking, a habit that he'd resumed again after quitting at age sixteen. They were waiting for their car to arrive so they could crash at Chuck's suite.
"Could you ease up on the lung caner, Nathaniel?" Chuck commented, swiping at the air.
Nate threw the cigarette away and glanced at Blair. She was staring into the distance and she looked like she needed out of here fast.
"You've been avoiding me." Blair whispered to him so Chuck wouldn't hear.
"I've not been avoiding you. I just haven't been kissing you." Nate replied, forever stating the obvious.
"Why?" Blair asked as their limo approached the threesome.
"Why haven't I been kissing you? My best friend just so happens to be in love with you." Nate whispered back, opening the door for both Blair and Chuck as they got in.
Nate was seated on the far right whilst Chuck was at the other end. Blair was in the middle. How fitting.
As Chuck fumbled through his pockets to find the key to his suite, Blair pulled Nate back in the corridor. He gave her a scary, angry look. His eyes were wide and his hair got into a mess somehow.
"What if I told you I wasn't in love with your best friend?"
--
Hope you liked this chapter (:! I appreciate feedback.
